What Is Love?
by Tkdoegirl
Summary: Danny Dare has always been very independent. She's never needed anyone. Slen is... well, the Slender man. Once upon a time he'd needed someone, but he vowed never to fall in to that trap again. That was all just fine, until he saw her eyes. She had her eyes...
1. Prologue

**Hey guys! I got another Slenderman story for you all! This one is going to be quite different from "A Slender Chance" and "A Slender Child," and is in no way related to those two except for the fact that it is about Slenderman and a human girl. This story should be quite a bit longer than what you're used to from me, and while this is a romance, I'm warning you now I'm going to properly build up to it, so it may take longer for your favorite myth and my new OC to get together. I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not ;D All the drama and awkwardnesss that leads up to relationships is too much fun to write xD (And don't go saying this is a spoiler. The story is LABLED a romance - you know it's coming.)**

**Also, for those of you who are very up on Slenderman mythos and Creepypastas, I promise you will find this quite enjoyable as the story progresses ;)**

**This story is rated T for language, violence, and mild sexual content - you have been warned.**

**Anyway, here comes the prologue. Enjoy! :D**

**- Erin**

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_"Everyman builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice."_

_- Ayn Rand_

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_The Slender Man_

I gazed down at the small body before me. The child was broken and lifeless at my feet, her wide brown eyes stared up at the sky, seeing nothing. A trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth.

I smiled.

I left the girl child and strolled through the woods. The night life would go silent, burrow, and hide as I traveled through their domain. Smart creatures; they knew better than to bother me.

I gave my latest victim no more thought. The human authorities would find her in the morning - she would make the news and there would be chaos as the police began searching for her murderer. My smile got bigger; I rather enjoyed chaos.

They would search for a while and eventually give up, summing it up as another unsolved murder mystery. Oh yes, they would never find the man responsible. They never had before.

Few people believed I existed, which suited me fine. Even those who did acknowledge my existence had a bit of the legend wrong. The Internet had stretched my image into so many different things, no one _really_ knew who I was anymore - at least no one who lived to record their knowledge.

They said I was a child killer. Well yes, that was true, but I didn't reserve my wrath only for juveniles. They also said that I was faceless. That was only part true...

They knew about my tentacles and my slender walking, a few people even knew that I could turn invisible and heal. What they didn't know, was that I could look just like them.

Human.

I smirked ruefully. Just because I could look like one didn't make me one.

I was the Slender man.


	2. Chapter 1

**_Edit 10/25/13: The first version I posted was a little choppy. Nothing too big was changed except for a little bit of the wording._**

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_"Serendipity is the gift of finding things we did not know we were looking for."_

- Glauco Ortolano

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_Danny Dare_

I rolled out of bed with a groan and smacked my alarm clock to shut it up. Damn Mondays.

Dragging my feet across my little bedroom to the bathroom, I looked in the mirror. My shoulder length red-brown hair was tousled from sleep and it stuck out at odd angles and hung in my face. Peeking out from behind the curtain of hair was a thin, delicate nose and full, pink lips. Sparkling emerald green eyes framed by long dark lashes were the brightest feature of my face and in my opinion my best asset. I brushed my hair, viciously ripping through the tangles. With it out of my face you could see the rose color of my cheeks and the light dusting of freckles across my nose and cheek bones. I was pretty, I could admit, but I wasn't anything special; nothing that would make a man's eyes follow you as you walked by. I was just... me. Just Danny.

I didn't bother with make up except for mascara and lip gloss - I didn't really have the patience for everyday cosmetics. Special occasions where one thing, but I wasn't particularly keen on the daily suffocation of my facial skin. After dressing for work in some jeans and my orange uniform T-shirt and pulling my hair back in a pony tail, I grabbed a granola bar and headed out the door.

Working at the little local grocery store was a bore, but it was a job - a job I desperately needed in fact. My boss, Jim, had me stocking shelves today, and while it was mundane and tiring work, I didn't complain - I never do. I wasn't so high and mighty that I could afford to complain about my only source of income. In a town this small, jobs weren't always the easiest to come by, and I didn't want to risk my employment on a bad attitude. So I did whatever I was told: stocking shelves, taking inventory, running a register, clean up, you name it. After eight hours of this, with a break at noon, I finally tasted freedom.

Quitting time. Hallelujah!

I walked home, feeling the warm spring breeze on my skin. The store was only a few blocks away from my home, and I never drove there unless the weather was rough. It saved me gas money I didn't always have and walking was good for you after all. Exercise and all that jazz, you know.

My life was set in the small town of Mexico Beach, Florida, just a few blocks off the coast. Mexico Beach seemed to be one of the last places on the gulf in the sunshine state that hasn't been taken over by tourism, and I was quite thankful for that; I like the quiet. Surrounding the town on three sides for miles was lush forests filled with swamps, ponds, and an abundance of wildlife. On the fourth side, of course, was the sparkling Gulf of Mexico.

My house - if you could even call it that - was nestled towards the back of town and surrounded by woods. It was nothing special. Just a tiny log cabin with one bedroom, bathroom, and a main room that functioned as a living room with a kitchen to the side. The furnishings were simple, functional, and comfortable - nothing too fancy. A comfy queen sized bed and a wardrobe were the only furniture in the bedroom. The living room portion of the main room had a plush love seat in front of the TV a well as a book shelf and desk over to the side, and in the back corner my electric keyboard was set up on its stand. On the kitchen side was, of course, the average appliances and a small round table complete with four stained wood chairs.

Simple, functional, and comfortable.

I lived on my own, and had since I was seventeen. The single life wasn't anything new to me, and family or friends was very nearly a foreign concept. Help wasn't wasn't something that I ever asked for, or even thought to ask for honestly. I'd always been very independent. I'd had to be; both my parents died when I was twelve.

A block away from my house I did a double take. Out of the corner of my eye, my subconscious mind registered something just a split second before my conscious mind caught up. What the _hell_ did I just see?

I turned back, scanning the woods for whatever - or _whomever_ - it was I had just seen, but the figure was gone. 'How strange. Probably just your imagination, Danny,' I thought bemused, and admittedly a little unnerved. I wasn't sure why I picked up my pace a little bit, but I wasted no time in getting through my front door. It was unlocked of course, just like it always was. Crime in Mexico Beach was almost nonexistent.

Why was I feeling so uneasy all of the sudden? Apparently I really needed to clear my head. Hastily, I sat down at my piano and began to play a quick, happy tune. Music was my lifeline. A song could suit any mood, alleviate most heartache, and calm any nerves. It didn't matter so much what I was playing, just so long as I _was_ playing. Actually, it wasn't even that important that it was me specifically producing the melodic sound, just as long as it was present. Music had gotten me through much worse things before than a little unjustified paranoia. Before long I was feeling better and I set about cooking dinner, completely at ease with myself and my surroundings. Just another day in the life of Danny Dare.

I'd all but forgot about the man with no face.


	3. Chapter 2

_"Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes."_

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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_Danny Dare_

I saw him again the next day.

I was outside behind the store on my break, soaking up a bit of vitamin D and lurking on Vine when my phone screen randomly turned to static and shut off. I peered warily at my iPhone, praying that I wasn't going to have to buy a new one. Electronics were the one thing I indulged myself in excessively - besides music - and iPhones were ungodly expensive.

Something then made me glance up, and pure horror washed through my body as my eyes fell on the source of my distraction. 'What the _fuck_...?' I thought frantically and stumbled backwards. A cold, numbing static settled on my brain and in my ears, and I found the effort of movement almost too much under the blanket of whatever the air held. All I could do was stare straight ahead at the figure before me.

There was a tall - _very_ tall - man standing just barely inside the tree line, returning my gaze and just as unmoving as I was. The business suit he wore was midnight black, and a scarlet tie was tied neatly at his throat in an almost unrealistically crisp fashion. The dress shirt he was wearing under the suit was a stark, blinding white, made even more bright from the harsh Florida sunshine reflecting off of it. These details weren't what concerned me though.

He was as white as a sheet of paper and his skin looked like it had the texture of some sort of fabric. He was completely bald and his proportions were wrong - disturbing actually. Yes, he was extremely tall, but his legs were the majority of his height. They were long and spider-like and his equally spindly arms reached all the way down to his knees with long pale fingers that looked a little bit like claws. And that wasn't even the worst part...

He had no face.

Little dips that hinted at eye sockets where on either side of a thin, elegant nose. Below that there was no mouth - none at all.

Oh. My. God.

A scream started to gather in my throat, but before it left my lips he suddenly vanished - I didn't wait for him to come back.

Break time over.

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**A/N: Hello! Is everyone enjoying the story so far? :) I'm sorry my posting is so irregular and far apart. Time has not been my friend as of late and I'm really feeling the pressure to do good in school this year more than ever. Most of my focus has been going into getting into my dream college, and it's taking up a lot of my normal writing time xP Thats not taking into account work, and theater, and normal school work, AND trying to keep up a healthy social life either. **

**Anyhow, enough rambling about myself. I've started work on my next one-shot prize for the 400th review of "A Slender Child" for _VerticalForeverElevator_ and hopefully I can get that posted as soon as possible (how soon "soon as possible" will be is a mystery to me though 0.o ) so I'll be letting y'all know when that goes up ;)**

**Please bare with me on the long updates guys. I'm doing the best I can, and hopefully I'll have some more time coming up soon. You all are amazing and I'm happy to see everyone's responses to this new story so far. Please keep on commenting, favoriting, and following! Love you all. Until next time, my friends :)**

**- Erin**


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